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The UK’s oldest private equity house said it made a pretax loss of £143m in the six months to September, compared with a £515m profit last year. Total return on shareholders’ funds fell from 12% in 2007 to minus 4.5% this half. The company took £248m of writedowns from only a few portfolio companies, although it declined to name them.

One bright spot in the results was that portfolio company income rose by 40% as 3i concentrated on improving company performance.

Warning that the rest of the year will remain challenging, the buyout group said its first-half net asset value per share increased 1.2% to £10.19p on the same period last year, although it was down 5.4% from £10.77 for the full-year to March 31 - the first fall in asset values for five years.

Chief executive Philip Yea said in a first-half results statement: “The credit and stock markets have deteriorated since late September and the outlook for the global economy continues to weaken.”

Defending the performance as “resilient”, Yea said a further fall was likely in net asset value for the six months to March. “We do believe that in the second half we are seeing a weaker position,” he said.